Marvel Marketing Minute – Be the Superhero Who Saves the Day with Scalable Naming Conventions

Why do most of us admire superheroes? Their strength and perseverance motivate us to be like them. Just like a superhero, you can save the day—and streamline your Marketo instance—by following these naming convention tips.

Consistency is the KEY!

Why do we succeed with consistent naming conventions?

As more Marketo users come onboard with different backgrounds and levels of experience, the existing, unprepared Marketo ecosystem breaks. A team of superheroes needs to strengthen together and to pick themselves up with centralized program names.

Develop a structural overview of marketing activities

Why does a team of superheroes need a secret base of operations?

A strong naming system will allow listing programs and identifying them easily by types of activities and in order by date and/or quarters. All programs would then get sorted in alphabetical order by each value per your final program taxonomy.

Program Taxonomy

Gain bulletproof reporting powers

Having a consistent program naming convention makes analysis easier with programs for scoring, reporting, and other operational needs. Then, the programs can also be distinguished within the selections of the naming convention values.

Manage Marketo like a flash

Using a naming convention reduces time spent on searching and sorting programs out of hundreds of folders. We do not have a time stone for that.

APAC-EVT-2018-Q1-Leaders-Conference-Sydney-1908

APAC-EVT-2018-Q1-Leaders-Conference-Singapore-1911

EMEA-EVT-2018-Q1-Leaders-Conference-London-1912

EMEA-EVT-2018-Q2-Leaders-Conference-Paris-2112

EMEA-EVT-2018-Q2-Leaders-Conference-Spain-2113

LATAM-EVT-2018-Q3-Leaders-Conference-Sao-Paulo-2129

LATAM-EVT-2018-Q3-Leaders-Conference-Mexico-City-2188

NA-EVT-2018-Q4-Leaders-Conference-New-York-2219

NA-EVT-2018-Q14-Leaders-Conference-San-Francisco-2228

Regions:

GLOBAL

LATAM

EMEA

JAPAN

NA

APAC

Program Type Abbreviations:

Content Syndication = CS

Email Send = EML

Newsletter = NL

List Import = LI

Physical Event = EVT

Online Event = ONL

Nurture = NUR

Online Advertising = OA

Operational = OP

Social = SOC

Webinar = WBN

Here are some examples without the superhero’s perseverance.

Bad examples:

EMEA_Physical_Event_10_2015

New York Trade Show November 1 2015

2018 Feb-12 Webinar-123 what to do

2017_Email_NA_123_report

10-1-2016 Leaders Conference

Here are some examples from an inspired superhero.

Good examples:

EMEA-EVT-2018-Q1-Leaders-Conference-London-1908

NA-EVT-2015-11-01-Leaders-Hero-NYC

GLOBAL-WEB-2018-Q2-123-What-to-Do-2081

NA-EML-2017-07-17-123-Report-0717

APAC-EVT-2016-10-01-With-Greatness-Workshop

Underscore vs dash vs space vs dot

It is highly not recommended to use underscores because hyperlinks will hide them, making it difficult to distinguish between program and asset names. Dots should also be avoided for program names because they’re the separators between program name and asset names.

Use dashes or a mix of dashes and spaces as separators. They will make your programs and assets more visible within your new, improved naming convention structure.

Asset Naming Convention

Once the naming convention at the program level is finalized, the next step is to dive into it at the asset level. As it is important to align the flow steps within the program, it is ideal to organize the assets in a sequence that follows the order of the progression.

For each smart campaign within a program:

[Sequence in 2 digitals] – [Generic Description]

Examples:

Send campaigns

01 – Send Email 1

02 – Send Email 2

Progressions

01 – Filled Out Form

For each asset within a program:

[Number Corresponding to Number of Smart Campaign Using Asset] – [Generic Description]

Examples:

Emails

01 – Email 1

02 – Email 2

Landing Pages

01a – Registration page

01b – Thank you page

02a – Registration page

02b – Thank you page

It is highly recommended to keep asset names generic because it eliminates the need to rename assets after cloning from a program template.

To summarize, choose a naming convention that fits your organization’s goals. Remember, consistency is the KEY!

You are much stronger than you think you are. The future is worth it. After all the pain and all the tears, the future of a consistent naming convention that meets your organization’s goals is worth fighting for.

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